The Nightmarish Camping
by Arish Mudra Rakshas
Summary: Parvati and Padma are camping in the Forest of Dean with their parents in the summer holidays after their OWL year. They meet Hermione there who is camping too. What happens when the three come across Death Eaters? For the Spell-Person-Place challenge


**For the Spell-Person-Place challenge.**

_A/N: I am assuming that Mr and Mrs Patil are Muggles, even though they were not. At least one of them was magical._

'It's very cold here,' said Parvati Patil.

'Yes,' echoed her twin, Padma.

'I know it's cold, kids, but this place is so beautiful! It's been twelve years since we came here,' said a tall figure, mother of the Patil twins.

'Do you think Dad is done setting up the tent?' Padma asked.

'I don't know. Let's go check,' said Mrs Patil.

'No, you both go. I'll stay here a bit longer,' said Parvati, and her mother and sister set off towards the Forest.

They were standing in the edge of a completely frozen lake. Even though others did not find it very interesting, Parvati somehow felt she could stare at it for hours. All around her, there were trees covered with last night's snow. The bare branches of the trees seemed to dance if a stray warm gust of wind cane their way. This was the beauty of the most ancient forest of Gloucestershire. This was the Forest of Dean.

Parvati sat herself on a nearby rock which was fortunately devoid of snow. She continued staring at the lake as if in a trance. Then, she saw something stir inside it. Shocked out of her wits, Parvati scrambled to the edge of the lake and leaned in to see whether she _had_ seen something or not. She ogled on and on, and then, suddenly, thought she glimpsed an eerie-looking _face_ in the lake … Then arms emerged … And then the torso of a man …

No. It couldn't be. There could not be a dead body _inside_ a _frozen_ lake. She inclined closer to the lake, her nose almost touching the surface of the lake –

'_Parvati_?' A voice rang out. It was full of incredulity.

Parvati turned around to see who had called her. She could see three figures stepping out of the Forest. 'Hermione! How are you?' Parvati said as she struggled to stand up.

'I'm well! And you? Are you on holiday here too?'

'Yes! You too? Oh, this is good. We can all stay together!'

'Meet my parents, Parvati. Dad, Mom, this is Parvati Patil, a schoolmate and friend of mine,' said Hermione, and Parvati greeted her parents with a handshake.

'Good to see you, dear,' Hermione's mother said.

Parvati turned back to Hermione. 'Have you set up your tent yet?'

'No, we've just arrived,' she replied.

'Good. Would you like to stay beside ours? We could have a bonfire and all together,' Parvati said.

'Sure! Is it OK with you, Dad?' Hermione said.

'Yes dear. You both can walk ahead, and your Mum and I'll follow.' Hermione's father said, his smile never leaving his face.

Parvati began to head towards their camp, and Hermione fell in step with her. Behind them, they could hear Mr and Mrs Granger talking together.

'So what were you doing staring at the lake?' Hermione asked, a hint of a grin on her face.

'Nothing, I was just seeing,' Parvati said, and changed the topic. 'Have you been here before?'

'Yes, when I was five.'

'Oh, I came here when I was four!'

'Oh. What have you got planned for today?'

'Nothing much. Marshmallows and bonfire was on my list though.'

'Great!'

When the four reached the Patils' camp, there was a long session of greetings and introductions. All the people helped to set up the Grangers' tent too, and at length, they were done. Hermione sighed. It had taken a lot of effort and time to set up this tent. When would she come of age? She could have done this in a matter of seconds, with a simple wave of her wand.

As night fell, the seven people had settled down near a great fire they had been able to make. They were all very snug, and sleep was hovering above everyone when they heard it.

A deep, long-drawn rumble. It heralded a series of mild earthquakes. They all stood up quickly and looked around in panic. Before their very eyes, a fireball flew across the sky and disappeared in the Forest. Hermione, Padma, and Parvati all looked at each other. Slowly, they drew their wands.

'We cannot do anything until we're sure, or we'll be breaking the Reasonable Restriction of Underage Sorcery.' Hermione whispered.

The twins nodded.

But then they were sure it was the Death Eaters. Because a green light was thrown into the night sky, which transformed into the Dark Mark. Once again, the three girls exchanged a fleeting look. Then Padma said, 'Mother, Father, Mr and Mrs Granger, you've all got to hide with us. The Death Eate-'

But she was cut short when five figures stepped out of the trees around their clearing. Hermione gasped audibly, but raised her wand in a motion none but Parvati noticed. She did so herself, and saw Padma doing the same.

The Death Eaters stopped midway as they saw the four adults huddled around each other, and three girls standing around them.

'Well, well, well. I suppose you've come a bit too far from home. And you're not going back now.' One of them said in a raspy voice.

The five wizards wore black cloaks, and masks covered their faces. They seemed to be carrying what seemed quite an amount of money.

'Are the Death Eaters now using the Dark Mark for petty thefts?' Hermione said tauntingly.

The Death Eaters made noises of anger. The first one said, 'You'll pay for that, one day, girl. Now get out of our way.'

'Let's see you make me pay first.'

Parvati and Padma were shocked. Was Hermione deliberately forcing the Death Eaters to attack them?

'Run along, now. You don't want me hurting these girls, do you, mister?' Another Death Eater said in a cultured voice to Mr Granger.

Before anybody could do anything, Hermione threw a curse nonverbally at the Death Eaters. Parvati and Padma had less than a second to marvel at her ability to use nonverbal magic before the Death Eaters raised uproar. The first one had deflected Hermione's spell, but now they were all advancing on the seven people.

'Run! Now!' Hermione started, and the four adults turned and ran. Parvati caught up with Hermione and began deflecting the Death Eaters' oncoming curses. Padma joined them after securely seeing off their parents.

The clearing was lit up with lights. Flashes and jets of lights were thrown towards the three girls, but they managed to deflect all of them with shields. Then Hermione shouted, 'Turn back, I'll hold them off! We need more time!'

Parvati and Padma reluctantly agreed, and as they dropped their shields and turned, they saw Hermione slyly Blasting a crater into the ground in front of the Death Eaters. She turned too, making use of their momentary distraction, and ran into the forest with the twins.

They ran and ran, ignoring the branches and thorns cutting at their clothes, noticing only the coloured flashes of lights that seemed to miss them by inches. All of a sudden, Hermione stopped, and so did the twins. 'Let's take a breath. We've got to come up with a plan. They're coming on us, fast,' said Padma.

Suddenly, Parvati shouted something and pointed her wand at something beyond Hermione's shoulder. '_Levicorpus_!' She shouted, and a dark figure went flying through the air and lay suspended there, upside-down.

'Run! We've got to find our parents!' Padma said as she Stunned another Death Eater who had been trying to revive his Levitated friend.

Again, the three girls broke into a run, and spells whizzed past them, hitting trees and burning holes in them. But unexpectedly, one spell hit Parvati and she screamed as she fell. Hermione turned and was on her in a flash.

'Padma! You'll have to delay them!' She shouted, and indistinctly saw Padma heading towards the source of the spells.

Hermione examined Parvati. She was whimpering terribly, and blood was leaking out of her from various spots. _Powerful dark magic_, she thought. _Let's see what I can do about this_.

Hermione tried to recall everything that she had read recently in a book on Dark Magic and it's effects. Quickly, she set up her mind. She put her wand over Parvati's heaving chest and started whispering immensely complex incantations. Slowly, Parvati's breathing returned to normal. _Phase one complete_, Hermione thought.

Then she stood up, resolutely pointing her wand at Parvati. Muttering more incantations, she began directing a thin, golden beam of light on Parvati from her wand. As it reached her, some of the cuts healed. Others healed partially. Some of the worse ones healed, but scars remained. That was all Hermione could do right now.

It took Parvati a minute more to stand up. She thanked Hermione and asked, 'Where's my sister?' In a second, the two ran towards the _bangs_ that they could hear. One thing was for sure, Padma was in need of help.

When the two girls reached another clearing in the forest, they saw Padma fending off three Death Eaters. At once, Hermione and Parvati joined her. It was now a game of one-on-one duels.

Spells were flying everywhere. Hermione slashed and twirled her wand through the air in a kind of mad rage. She deduced that this was because her vacation had been spoilt.

A spell suddenly hit Hermione and she doubled back. The spot on her arm where the spell had hit her began bleeding profusely. But she still had strength left, so she continued duelling.

At long last, Hermione was able to aim a spell at the Death Eater opposite her. As the spell hit him, his face lit up with a bright white light, showing terror on it. A moment later, he was flying through the air and collided with a tree. He died instantly of concussion, and Hermione was sprayed with blood. _Gross_, she thought.

Parvati and Padma were faring well. Hermione aimed a curse at Padma's opponent, and he was Transfigured into a water goblet. Laughing, Padma and Hermione sent a curse each at the remaining Death Eater. He fell under the weight of three Stunners, and lay prostrate, on the brink of death.

Leaving the bloodied clearing behind, Hermione, Parvati and Padma made their way towards the entrance of the Forest. There they met their parents, each of whom was shocked to death (not literally) at the sight of their daughters appearing out of the Forest covered in blood and wounds.

A few hours later, the three Grangers were back on their way home after a quick cleaning up and healing (done by Hermione herself). As the four Patils climbed into their car too, Parvati thought that she and her twin had had a unique camping with Hermione Granger.


End file.
